Suliban

Star Trek race|if=
bgcolor=#ffffff
Name=Suliban
Caption=Silik, a male Suliban
Planet=None, nomadic species
Affiliation=Unknown, Sector 3641 The Suliban are a starfaring race in the fictional Star Trek universe, seen throughout the series "". A Suliban sect known as the Cabal served as the show's primary antagonists in the first and second seasons.

Humanoid in appearance, Suliban are hairless and have pale yellow skin covered with small bumps, making Suliban resemble an osage-orange.

History

The Suliban were prevented from existing millions of years ago by Vosk, instigator of the Temporal Cold War. The damage to the timeline was undone by Silik, a Cabal leader, and Daniels ("Storm Front, Part II").

Some time in the 1800s, the Suliban homeworld was destroyed and its survivors spread throughout space, many settling on Tandaran colonies. By the 2150s, the Cabal was prominent, while 'ordinary' Suliban were nomads. The Cabal received orders - and, occasionally, advanced technology and genetic engineering - from a mysterious humanoid figure who communicated to them from centuries in the future. This "Future Guy" had an agenda which he never revealed to anyone, not even Silik. Ordinary Suliban attempt to distance themselves from the Cabal whenever possible, as the Cabal's actions caused all Suliban to be feared and persecuted (and the Cabal was fond of conscripting normal Suliban into its ranks without consent); only a small fraction of the Suliban population were actually members of the Cabal (ENT "Detained", "Broken Bow"). In the pilot episode mentioned (Broken Bow), Doctor Phlox notes after dissecting a dead Suliban, that the alien was "the recipient of some very sophisticated genetic engineering" such as modifications to the "alveoli clusters", "subcutaneous pigment sacs", "biomimetic garments", and, his favorite, "compound retinas".

In the episode "Detained", Jonathan Archer and Travis Mayweather are held in a detention camp on a Tandaran planet, where Suliban without genetic enhancements are being held for "their own safety" under the command of Tandaran Colonel Grat. With the help of a Suliban he meets, Archer manages to help the detainees escape from the camp in their own confiscated ships.

In the two-part episode "Shockwave", the Cabal is revealed to have been behind a gambit to alter the future timeline by framing "Enterprise" for a planetary disaster. In the episode "Future Tense", the "Enterprise" successfully foiled attempts by the Cabal and the Tholians to salvage a ship believed to have come from the future. The Sulibans' last appearance on "Star Trek: Enterprise" was in "Storm Front, Part II" when Silik came to Archer's aid in order to foil their mutual adversary Vosk from irrevocably altering the timeline.

In a 2001 interview (prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center) in the Star Trek "Communicator" fanzine, executive producer Rick Berman revealed that the Suliban were named after the Taliban.

External links